This invention relates generally to tobacco stripping machines used to strip the cured leaves from the stalks of Burley tobacco. More specifically, the invention deals with a stalk guide assist which is used to direct the tobacco stalk into the infeed tube and the attached knife during the stripping operation.
The stripping of Burely tobacco has traditionally been a labor intensive operation that has been done by hand by farmers for several hundred yeras. Mechanization of this process has been hampered by the tender, easily damagable nature of the cured Burley tobacco leaves. Recently a Burely tobacco stripping machine has been developed which resolves this time consuming operation in a manner which does not damage the tender Burley tobacco leaf.
It has been discovered in working with this tobacco stripping machine that the design of the knife and the infeed tube area requires that a tobacco stalk be easily guided into that area. Typically, a farmer will feed the top end of the stalk of the tobacco plant into the infeed tube and experience difficulty in guiding the relatively thin stalk into the rotating infeed tube. Additionally, the stalk will catch on the knife edge of the infeed tube. Although experience may improve the accuracy of the operators aim, difficulty in efficiently feeding the tobacco stalks into the rotating infeed tube and its accompanying knife continues even with experience.
Additionally, because some tobacco stalks occasionally are not straight a problem has been experienced with feeding the crooked tobacco stalks into the infeed tube. Where the infeed tube and the knife are essentially the same diameter crooked stalks may be fed into the infeed tube, but much of the tobacco leaves which are not stripped from the stalk by the action of the stripping rollers engage the cutting edge of the knife some distance from the stalk. This results in the knife cutting the leaf at that point, thereby leaving much of the valuable tobacco leaf of the stalk.
The foregoing problems are solved in the design of the stalk guide assist and knife of the present invention by providing in a tobacco stripping machine having at least a pair of counter-rotating stripping rollers which form a nip therebetween, an improved stalk guide assist which directs the stalk into the infeed tube and the knife, as well as an improved knife attached to the infeed tube which cooperates with the stalk guide assist to effect the cutting of any non-stripped leaves close to the stalk.